Stephen Strasburg Silences Haters

Wednesday was a day of baseball drama and the District was the centerpiece.

It all started Tuesday night when Nationals Manager Dusty Baker seemed confused about the availability of one of his ace arms.

Baker said in a press conference that Stephen Strasburg had thrown a bullpen session on Tuesday and wouldn’t be available. The problem with that was he tossed the session on Monday, therefore he would be fine to pitch.

Baker then said he seemed under the weather, which was echoed by GM Mike Rizzo in an interview on 106.7 the Fan.

Critics pounced.

They couldn’t fathom what type of illness would allow an All-Star pitcher to participate in training one day, but not pitch a potentially season ending game.

Old school baseball fans referenced players to which would have taken the ball if they had a broken leg or other more extreme injuries.

Strasburg was a bad joke on Twitter for a few hours among those embedded in Major League Baseball.

Ultimately, like 98% of things that occur on social media, it didn’t matter.

When Dusty put pen to paper to fill in his lineup card Strasburg’s name was the one that was inked in.

When Stephen took the hill he brought his best mental and physical game, despite dealing with adversity stemming from both mind and body.

When the Curly W was in the books, Strasburg had done more than enough to be the hero of the game.

I doubt we will find out if the plan all along was to be ambiguous about who would start the game for DC.

Whether it was schemed, organic, or an accident, somehow manager and pitcher deceived their opponent by utilizing the whimsical, up-and-down media coverage that we are accustomed to in 2017.